Red-legged Kittiwakes
Seabirding the Ring of Fire - continued from Page 3
Friday 14 June
.Another Black-footed Albatross, but distant, was seen by only a couple of the group. Many small auklets were zooming by and identification was not easy, in many cases a telescope was needed to clinch the species concerned. Crested Auklets, black with their orange bills often standing out as little beacons, then the tiny and chubby Least Auklets, showing white underparts (and some more barred than others). There were a few Cassin's Auklets also - much greyer in colour and bulkier than the Cresteds. Horned Puffins, as usual in much lower numbers than their Tufted namesake. A lone Canada Goose was an oddity, seen at sea with no land in sight. This would be the endangered race leucopareia of the Aleutians, even though it didn't have the neck-ring characteristic to this form.
.We arrived at Kiska during lunch. There was a tannoy announcement that a Bald Eagle could be seen sitting on an outcrop - a fitting welcome to the United States of America.
.everyone should be on the decks to witness the spectacle of birds at Sirius Point. This promontory, lower in height than I imagined, was a lava flow containing many boulders and was ideal for the auklets that need crevices for nesting. In front of us were hundreds of thousands of birds. The population estimate for Sirius Pont is 1.5 million birds. Large clouds of Least Auklets were wheeling like swarms of twittering bees. On the water were large flocks, thousands in number, of mixed Crested, Parakeet and Least Auklets. This was a spectacle to see, a huge colony of north Pacific seabirds. Red-faced Cormorants were flying by, and Glaucous-winged Gulls, the colony predators. Twice I saw Least Auklets taken from the sea by gulls, and then swallowed whole. The tiny Leasts, the size of a sparrow, had to dive to avoid being eaten alive. Sirius Point was a seabirding highlight
.We left Kiska sailing towards Adak Island. We gained a ship-follower in our wake - a Black-footed Albatross. This one stayed with the ship for some time.
.a possible Short-tailed Albatross was at aft portside. A rush to the deck saw a white speck in the far distance. The Captain changed course, the World Discover was going to find the bird - a 6000-ton vessel in pursuit of one bird! It was seen again, now sitting on the sea. The direction shouted to everyone was: It's now on the sea under the flying Black-footed! Sure enough, the yellow head, like a huge Gannet, clearly visible (why have these two seabirds evolved to have yellow heads?) It then took off and flew towards the ship and we had a fly-past from an adult Short-tailed Albatross. Magnificent! It just kept going to become a speck in the far distance again. We had seen our second Short-tailed Albatross of the trip. I will record this bird with US Fish and Wildlife as they have requested all records of Short-tailed Albatrosses in American waters. (52 09N 179 06E). Record submitted to US Fish and Wildlife.
Saturday 15 June
.At 0600 we were alongside the quay in Kuluk Bay, Adak Island. Whilst the formalities were underway two murrelets were found swimming and diving in the bay. These were Marbled Murrelets in transitional plumage from winter to summer. This particular murrelet surprisingly nests in trees, and has been recorded breeding forty-five miles inland.
.We stopped at a couple of small lakes, which had Greater Scaup and Common Teal (these were Eurasian and not Green-winged Teal as expected). Many Lapland Buntings were in song-flight.
.Our next stop was known as Clam Lake. On the approach road the bus flushed a Rock Ptarmigan. Seals and Bald Eagles were the quarry around the lake. Our last stop, at another inlet, had a few Sea Otters swimming - two had young clinging to their upturned mother's bellies.
.we sailed a course for Kagalaska Island. We passed two haul-outs for Steller's Sealions - a couple of very large bulls were obvious at the highest point in the colony. A tidal rip had hundreds of Whiskered Auklets feeding, one of which we saw taken from the water by a Peregrine Falcon. Horned Puffins were in good numbers here, as well as Pigeon Guillemots.
.A zodiac landing took place at Quail Bay. Many pairs of Rock Ptarmigan flew back and forth over the grass slopes giving their guttural croaking calls, and two summer-plumaged Great Northern Divers were on a large lake. It was very scenic, but bird numbers in tundra like this were typically low.
.during dinner lines of auklets could be seen flying over the calm water. Groups would be so large that flock shapes would constantly change as they wheeled low to the water. Often thousands were sitting together on the water and tight flocks would lift off at the ships approach.
Sunday 16 June
.We were en route to the Pribilof Islands. We were at sea for the whole day. Seawatching produced Laysan Albatrosses, a few Leach's Storm-petrels, still hordes of Short-tailed Shearwaters
.The second bird to be found on board the ship had died. This was a Crested Auklet found last night in the swimming pool. It's likely that this one had fallen through the netting that covered the emptied pool and was then unfortunately trapped there.
.Through the loudspeakers came an announcement that a baleen whale was off the portside. A Fin Whale, and later a second was found. This species is the second largest after the mighty Blue Whale and one individual was certainly more than sixty feet long. Groups of Short-tailed Shearwaters were associating with the whales, hoping for any fish panicked by the whales feeding. We stayed with these whales for some time, the Captain changing course to keep the animals in view. A second cetacean species, two schools of Dall's Porpoises came alongside.
.Up to fifteen Red-legged Kittiwakes were following the ship when I retired to bed.
Monday 17 June
.At 0630 we dropped anchor at St Paul's in the Pribilof Islands. Two different excursions were offered this morning - the first to the Northern Fur Seal rookery and the second, which was to be our group, to the seabird cliffs. There was the option to rotate during the afternoon.
.It was an amazing bird sight - to see the North Pacific auks at their breeding cliffs. The weather was against the photographers at times, but was apparently typical Pribilof's weather - sea mist, then clearing with overcast skies and occasionally, just occasionally, sunlight, even sun, breaking through. The mist did come and go, and the cameras came quickly into action. Auklets were in their thousands - Least, Crested and Parakeet. Tufted and Horned Puffins were sometimes at fifteen feet distance. Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes were on the middle ledges and cormorants down on the rocks. Here were the seabirds we had been straining to identify a few days back, and now in profusion.
.A large open hide had been positioned where a number of seals were hauled out along the beach. We watched a very impressive young male from the safety of the cliff edge - he growled at us disdainfully.
.Tim and myself stopped at another beach on the way back to the quayside. It was full of large boulders and thousands of Least Auklets were gathering in attentive flocks, appearing always nervous but actually quite approachable.
.We saw more than ten Arctic Foxes on our walks. They were very common, even in the town where one entered a warehouse, another was observed around the containers on the wharf. Most had very dark coats although one white individual was seen.
.The entire group had finally caught up with Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch. These on the Pribilofs were much larger than the main USA populations. Sometimes three or four were seen together and some were very tame. I watched two on the seabird cliffs noticing they were larger than the Least Auklets alongside.
.This had been a great day and a highlight of the cruise. I'm sure the photographers were hoping for better light conditions, but there still had to have been some great results.
.We set sail again now on a bearing towards Hall Island and St Matthew Island. At 2200 I went onto the deck. It was a calm sea, there was good light (we were at the same latitude as Iceland), and Kittiwakes and Fulmars (white morphs had become much more common) were in the wake.